CenterPoint Series | NCRVE Home | Site Search | Product Search
Previous Next Title Page Contents
Examining the Roots of Today's Transition Initiatives


  1. Facilitating secondary-to-postsecondary transition

  2. The role of federal legislation

Firmly entrenched in the American high school, the college prep curriculum is highly valued for its effectiveness in preparing youths for college or university study (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Selective four-year colleges and universities establish college admission requirements based largely on student participation in and acquisition of high school-level academic subject matter delivered through a sequence of liberal arts and sciences courses. Colleges reinforce students' college prep choices by using traditional measures of student achievement to determine the disciplinary knowledge students have acquired (Bailey & Merritt, 1997). Paradoxically, even though a growing proportion of high school students go on to college--recent estimates indicate as high as 70% of high school graduates proceed to postsecondary education of some sort--only the top echelon of high school students complete the college prep curriculum. Instead, most high school students take a hodge-podge of courses, contributing to a rising college drop-out rate. Citing figures from the American Council on Education, Gray and Herr (1995) report almost 50% of students who enter college never graduate. Thus, for many, the high school curriculum does not add up to a coherent whole, but rather a disarray of classes that is useful neither for college or work after high school. In today's increasingly complex world, this is a problem. Social, economic, and multicultural aspects of modern life make college a priority for most, if not all, high school graduates.

Facilitating Secondary-to-Postsecondary Transition
Of course, the necessity of encouraging more youths to participate in rigorous academics so they are ready to make a smooth transition to college has been recognized for some time. What is newer is the notion of integrating academic and vocational education as a means of facilitating secondary-to-postsecondary transition, although this idea has also been around for some time. Beginning in the late 1960s, a few states began to encourage better coordination of vocational programs between high schools and community colleges. Setting the stage for tech prep education specifically, an Oregon task force recommended that articulation agreements be developed between high schools and community colleges beginning in 1968. The task force recommended several strategies that have quite a contemporary flavor, including a "cluster approach" to occupational programming, career exploration beginning in grade 7 leading to more focused occupational preparation beginning in grade 11, and better guidance and counseling services (Dornsife & Bragg, 1992).

The Role of Federal Legislation
Reinforcing these ideas, federal vocational education legislation since 1972 has consistently emphasized secondary and postsecondary linkages, along with applied academics (and later the similar but broader concept of academic and vocational integration) (Gray & Herr, 1998). [1] Though overshadowed by A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), the mid-1980s were a critical time for launching various secondary-to-postsecondary articulation initiatives, first with the endorsement of tech prep and applied academics by the National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education (1984). These recommendations were reinforced by passage of the 1984 Carl D. Perkins vocational education legislation, emphasizing vocational articulation and allowing expenditure of federal funds for tech prep. Paralleling these policies, Dale Parnell's book The Neglected Majority (1985), was published. In his book, Parnell argued for a much broader conceptualization of educational reform to meet the needs of students left out of the educational reform debate. Both separately and collectively, these actions reinforced a new direction for education, highlighting the need to link secondary and postsecondary education, particularly emphasizing student transitions from secondary to community, junior, and technical college education (henceforth called "community colleges") (Bragg, Kirby, Puckett, Trinkle, & Watkins, 1994).

Legislation in the decade of the 1990s emphasized the importance of secondary-to-postsecondary transition even more. In 1990, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act contained Title IIIE, The Tech Prep Education Act, which targeted federal funding toward the implementation of 2+2 Tech Prep education programs. Combined secondary and postsecondary programs designed to lead to two-year associate degrees, certificates, or adult apprenticeships were the primary goal of tech prep implementation. Similarly, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994 called for secondary-to-postsecondary articulation as a part of reformed educational systems focused on combining school and work in more creative and challenging ways for "all students." School-to-Work Opportunities systems were to be connected in real and significant ways to the federal Goals 2000 educational reform agenda. Finally, recent reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins vocational legislation of 1998 has further legitimized secondary-to-postsecondary transition activities by continuing targeted funding for tech prep. Particularly notable is the expansion of tech prep by strengthening its relationship to baccalaureate degree programs, further enhancing student options for postsecondary education.

[1]The legislation referred to includes the Education Amendments of 1976, Title II, Vocational Education, amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963; the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984; the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments of 1990; and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments of 1998.

Previous Next Title Page Contents

CenterPoint Series | NCRVE Home | Site Search | Product Search